Auburn defensive end Dee Ford put Jadeveon Clowney square in his crosshairs, and the Senior Bowl MVP thinks he’s better than Clowney when he spoke on Sirius XM NFL Radio on Sunday.

“I’m better (than Clowney). Let’s put it like this. People like to talk about size all the time. Size is pretty much overrated in my eyes,” Ford said on Sirius XM NFL Radio Sunday. “You can look at guys like Robert Mathis, Elvis Dumervil, Von Miller. These are 6-2 guys and under. People are just looking at the fact that he’s a physical specimen. Honestly if you watch the film, he plays like a blind dog in a meat market, basically.

“I play with a lot of technique, I watch a lot of film, these are the things that make you a great player. These are the things I do, and it shows up, rather than — this is all my opinion — you can see these things on film. Go watch the film,” Ford said. “There are a lot of intangibles that you need to have to be a great player. You can’t just look at the fact that he’s a physical specimen. I think the NFL should have learned that by now.”

“A blind dog in a meat market.” That’s a good one, and please don’t hammer me for using that one in the future.

Ford can play either defensive end or outside linebacker, according to whichever team drafts him and the defensive scheme they run. Ford racked up 10.5 sacks, 14.5 tackles for loss and 17 QB hurries in 2013, helping lead Auburn to the SEC and BCS Championship games.

However, Ford was scratched from Monday’s workout because of medical reasons. He was one of the fastest rising players in the draft, and he needed a strong workout. Hopefully, he’ll be okay and will get a chance at Auburn’s pro day.

Clowney responds

Clowney impressed scouts with his 4.53 official 40-yard dash. You can watch him outrun Johnny Manziel here.

“I told him, ‘I don’t see you out here. You ain’t doing none of these drills.’ For him to say something, I (didn’t) want to hear it,” Clowney said. “I just feel like he just said that to build his stock up or something. But it didn’t bother me. I told him, ‘I’m still better than you.’

Photo Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

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COMMENTS

It’ll be interesting to see how the relatively negative pub for Clowney impacts his performance. It seems when everyone was fawning over him, it might’ve made him slack off. Now that he is being questioned and challenged, we might see him come out and destroy offensive backfields next season. If he doesn’t play well, I think it’ll speak volumes about his character, or lack thereof.

I think, too, everyone fawning him elevated the expectations higher than were reasonable. If you go back and watch film, you’ll see him getting double teamed and teams running plays away from him constantly. I’m not making excuses for the guy because I think he let up a bit, but his “slacking off” was just a small part of his decrease in stats. If you go back and watch film, he was still heavily disruptive for the majority of the season.